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Tuesday, 31 May 2011

KIDNAPPING AND CONFINEMENT OF ELDERLY AFRICAN-AMERICAN WOMAN PROMPTS FAMILY'S REQUEST FOR INVESTIGATION BY U.S. DEPT. OF JUSTICE

Buffalo, NY (BlackNews.com) -- The Britt family of Buffalo, NY is fighting to rectify the atrocities perpetrated against their elderly aunt, Lula Baity. Eighty-six year old Lula Baity, a then resident of the Buffalo Municipal Housing Complex, went to the rental office on September 30, 2003 to inquire about her current month's rent payment. The money order had been returned to Ms. Baity, because the amount was deemed insufficient. One hundred dollars and eighty-eight cents ($100.88) was remitted, as opposed to the one hundred eighty-eight dollars ($188.00), that would have served as the rental fee due for the month of September. Ms. Baity explained to the property manager that apparently, the corner store had made an error while issuing the money order. To assist Ms. Baity in resolving the discrepancy, the property manager directed her subordinate, a Housing Authority case management worker, to contact Ms. Baity's family and Family Services (a non-official agency, community based center, located within the housing complex).

The Housing Authority's case management worker did not assist Ms. Baity as instructed. Instead, she contacted Erie County Crisis Services, a community mental health outreach agency, with allegations that Lula Baity was not paying rent, was increasingly confused and disoriented, was unable to care for herself, and other false claims. The BMHA rental office was not an authorized reporting agency, approved by the Office of Mental Health. As the Housing Authority's case management worker, this employee's responsibilities fell within the scope of administrative and operational tasks, usually involving inspections and maintenance issues. It was not within her jurisdiction to request a mental evaluation of Ms. Baity. It has been confirmed however, that she identified herself, not as the Housing Authority's case management worker, but as Ms. Baity's "social worker." After her call and without verification of her credentials, actions were taken effecting the involuntary removal of Ms. Baity from the home she'd lived in for over forty years.

October 1, 2003, the same Housing Authority case worker, accompanied by two Buffalo Municipal Housing Authority police officers, a Crisis Services worker, and an Ambulance, went to Ms. Baity's apartment. Upon gaining entry, the Housing Authority worker proceeded to seize Ms. Baity, grabbing her by the arm.

"As my elderly aunt tried to pull away, this woman threatened her," says Lula Baity's niece, Carmen Britt. "She told my aunt that if she continued to resist and did not leave, the housing authority police would use force to remove her."

Against her will, she was strapped to a gurney and transported by ambulance to Erie County Medical Center. After being shaken up by the incident, she arrived at the emergency room with symptoms of increased blood pressure and a rapid heartbeat. Ms. Baity was admitted with a purported diagnosis of "unable to care for herself." Her family was never contacted by representatives of the Buffalo Municipal Housing Authority or hospital staff. An anonymous caller alerted her family.

Admitted for an emergency mental evaluation, Ms. Baity was subjected to a battery of medical tests, none of which were mental health screenings. Ms. Baity's given diagnosis of "inability to care for herself" was never confirmed by a psychiatrist. After ten (10) days of involuntary confinement, Dr. Phillip Rados, the attending physician, making an assumptive diagnosis of "advanced dementia" ordered Ms. Baity's transfer to Grace Manor Nursing Home.

Without court approval , 86 year old Lula Baity was transferred to Grace Manor Nursing Home, where she was confined to a locked third-floor dementia unit, and despite her objections, she was subjected to numerous unnecessary medical procedures. She was forced to submit to highly invasive daily enemas and suppositories. In a similar vein, without a written consent or a patient authorization, Grace Manor authorized the surgical extraction of three (3) of Ms. Baity's healthy teeth. Ms. Baity was also administered daily doses of the psychotropic medication, Risperdal, for the treatment of her alleged diagnosis of dementia that was never confirmed. Risperdal is grouped in a class of drugs known as atypical antipsychotics. The FDA warns against the use of atypical antipsychotics in treating elderly dementia patients. Risperdal has been found to be potentially hazardous and could result in death.

The New York State Department of Health, after conducting an investigation into the use of Risperdal by the nursing home, determined that there was no medical basis for administering the drug to Lula Baity and sanctioned Grace Manor.

The System Failed Ms. Baity

New York State and federal law provides mandate procedures which must be followed in all situations involving the involuntary confinement and/or hospitalization of any citizen. In the case of Lula Baity, no procedures, whatsoever, had been followed regarding crisis intervention or her involuntary confinement. She remained involuntarily confined at the locked dementia unit of Grace Manor Nursing Home for a period of ninety-two (92) days.

Ms. Baity's niece, Carmen Britt, retained attorney Richard L. Baumgarten, who petitioned for writ of habeas corpus, which was thereupon granted by a New York State Supreme Court judge. On January 10, 2004, after 102 days of being involuntarily confined to a hospital and nursing home, Lula Baity was allowed to return to her home. Soon after her release, Ms. Baity's condition was evaluated by her primary care physician, a clinical psychologist, and a psychiatrist; all concluded that she was completely competent. Unable to put the horrors of these events behind her, however she was diagnosed with posttraumatic anxiety disorder. Despite her fragile health and ripe old age of 86 years, Ms. Baity filed suit against all responsible parties. She did not live to have her day in court or an opportunity to tell her story to a jury of her peers. She passed away on May 9, 2006.

May is Elder Abuse Awareness Month

According to the American Psychological Association, elder abuse occurs when senior citizens are assaulted, mistreated, or taken advantage of, whether the abuse is intentional or not. Abuse can be verbal, physical, emotional, psychological, or financial. It can also be in the form of gross neglect or even isolation. Often, mistreatment occurs at the hand of family members, but in many instances, as in Ms. Baity's case, it exists in hospitals, nursing homes, or is caused by perpetrators who are unrelated to the individual. Any caregiver behavior which causes distress is considered abuse, according to the APA. Since aging seniors are more vulnerable to these types of attacks, it is important to recognize the signs. According to the National Elder Abuse Incidence Study conducted by the National Center on Elder Abuse, for each case of elder abuse, neglect, or exploitation reported to authorities, five more go unreported. The American Psychological Association estimates more than 2 million older adults are victims of elder abuse.

The Family Vows to Push Forward

An On-Line Petition has been launched, urging Attorney General Eric H. Holder, Jr., to conduct an investigation into the violation of Lula Baity's human rights, as well as to investigate the inadequacies that exist within the current system. The injustice that occurred in the case of Ms. Baity should stand as a caution to legislators. The current procedural safeguards in effect are inadequate to safeguard our elders from the type of abuse that has been shown to have occurred with Ms. Baity. Therefore, clearly, additional procedural safeguards need to be in place, and at the very least, those found in violation should be held accountable. Current regulations were not adhered to at the most critical juncture, where decisions are made by individuals and actions are taken by agencies and institutions leading to the removal of such elders from their homes. Measures need to be taken ensure that the provisions set forth are implemented and enforced, thereby protecting the liberties of our growing population of seniors.

The full tragic account of Lula Baity's ordeal, official court documents, and her video-taped deposition testimony may be accessed online. Please support Ms. Baity's cause by visiting the website and signing the On-Line Petition at www.baity-v-bmha-et-al.com. All support is appreciated.

In a landmark ruling, a Victorian court has ruled a bullied teenager's suicide was a direct result of an act of violence.

In 2009 Allem Halkic killed himself after suffering weeks of abuse through the internet and text messages.
The Victims of Crime Assistance Tribunal has ruled the teenager died as the result of an act of violence.
The family's lawyer, Julia Schembri, says the aim of the compensation claim was not about getting money.
"That was what they needed to do in order to provide Allem some dignity," she said.
"I think it provided them a great deal of closure in being able to understand the reasons behind Allem's death."
The teenager's father, Ali Halkic, says the case sets an important precedent.
"So many people have taken their lives due to criminal acts committed against them," he said.
Last year a former friend of the 17-year-old pleaded guilty to stalking charges and was sentenced to a community-based order.

Loving
Day is less than two weeks away! Celebrations on or around June 12th
have been announced in cities nationwide, and as far away as Japan.
We’ve included a list of events below, which is constantly being
updated at http://lovingday.org/find-a-celebration

Can’t
make it to any of these cities? Start your own Loving Day tradition!
It’s fun and easy to host a celebration, and it’s the best way to be an
active part of our growing community. Find out more at http://lovingday.org/host-a-celebration

http://exm.nr/m4oikR via @examinercom
The headlines over the last few weeks tell a tale of two different realities for children, particularly Black children, in Baltimore and across the nation. One headline from The Baltimore Sun as noted on May 15, 2011 shares the heart-warming news of Ty Hobson Powell, a 15-year old prodigy who is the youngest graduate of the University of Baltimore. While another headline from The Baltimore Sun shares the tragic death of 12-year old, Shawn Johnson - one of four male teens shot in East Baltimore last week by unknown assailants. A May 25, 2011 article in The Baltimore Sun tells the story of Kearra Carter, a City College graduate who is the first in her immediate family to graduate from the college (Johns Hopkins University) where her mother has worked as a waitress for the past seventeen years. While a May 4, 2011 article from the same newspaper confirmed what many had feared regarding the disappearance of Phylicia Barnes, the 16-year old was, indeed, murdered while visiting older siblings in Baltimore.
These news headlines offer startling insight regarding Baltimore - a city of paradoxes where one family rejoices while another mourns. One adult exposes a young person in her care to a prestigious college campus while another adult introduces a young person in her care to illegal drugs and underage drinking. One young person's tomorrow is filled with hope while another young person's tomorrow is snatched away. By all accounts Ty, Shawn, Kearra and Phylicia were described in television and newspaper reports as exceptionally bright young people. Their lives - for the most part - were full of love and filled with responsible adults who made the effort to introduce these young people to opportunities that would enrich their lives. Yet, two of these four young lives were shattered by adults - the two men who witnesses say opened fire on Shawn and his friends as well as the adults who failed to protect Phylicia. As is most often the case, the lives of young people in Baltimore are drastically impactedby the decisions (good or bad) of the adults in their lives.
How do we stop the senseless murder of another young person in Baltimore? How do we ensure that young people in this city are afforded the proper services, supports and opportunities to thrive? How do we surround children in Baltimore with healthy, caring and responsible adults? We raise the investment and push by the City and State to fund positive youth development programs (i.e. The Urban Leadership Institute, The Algebra Project) while providing equal funding to adult training and professional development programs that target - parents, older siblings, grandparents, foster parents, teachers, neighbors, coaches, police officers, ex-offenders, church members, etc. We invest in neighborhood development programs that respect the autonomy of local residents while offering opportunities for them to gain competencies that help them build support networks and grow neighborhood accountability. We stop the incessant talking and showing up only to be seen at protests or on schedule for the next election. We stand watch on the corners as part of neighborhood patrols even when the cameras aren't rolling. We volunteer year-round at the local youth club to mentor a young person. We take the time to volunteer weekly at a local NA meeting to sponsor an adult working to overcome substance abuse. We decide as Kimberly Armstrong - a mother who lost her 16-year old son to the violent streets of Baltimore in 2004 - that ENOUGH IS ENOUGH, and we take strategic action to create a more positive reality for children in Baltimore!

MAAFA 21 is a very carefully reasoned, well-produced exposé of the abortion industry, racism and eugenics. It proves through innumerable sources that many founders of Planned Parenthood and other parts of the abortion movement were interested in killing off the black race in America and elsewhere.

Monday, 30 May 2011

Being passionate about life is being on fire about the life you have by keeping the spark of hope and faith within you ignited! Follow your heart, make your dreams happen, dare to love, embrace who you are, enjoy the simple things in life and celebrate you! Be the person you want to be in life because you're not out to prove anyone anything; you're out to prove to yourself what you can do and how far you can go - Jenna Kandyce Linch

Seasonal affective disorder (SAD), also known as winter depression, winter blues, summer depression or summer blues, is a mood disorder with which people who have normal mental health throughout most of the year experience depressive symptoms in the winter or summer,[1] spring or autumn, repeatedly, year after year. In the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV), SAD is not a unique mood disorder, but is "a specifier of major depression".[2]
Once regarded skeptically by the experts,[who?] seasonal affective disorder is now well established. Epidemiological studies estimate that its prevalence in the adult population of the US ranges from 1.4 percent (Florida) to 9.7 percent (New Hampshire).[3]
The US National Library of Medicine notes that "some people experience a serious mood change when the seasons change. They may sleep too much, have little energy, and may also feel depressed. Though symptoms can be severe, they usually clear up."[4] The condition in the summer is often referred to as reverse seasonal affective disorder, and can also include heightened anxiety.[5]
SAD was first formally described and named in 1984 by Norman E. Rosenthal and colleagues at the National Institute of Mental Health.[6][7]
There are many different treatments for classic (winter-based) seasonal affective disorder, including light therapy with sunlight or bright lights, antidepressant medication, cognitive-behavioral therapy, ionized-air administration,[8] and carefully timed supplementation of the hormone melatonin.[9]

Symptoms

Symptoms of SAD may consist of difficulty waking up in the morning, morning sickness, tendency to oversleep as well as to over eat, and especially a craving for carbohydrates, which leads to weight gain. Other symptoms include a lack of energy, difficulty concentrating on completing tasks, and withdrawal from friends, family, and social activities. All of this leads to the depression, pessimistic feelings of hopelessness, and lack of pleasure which characterize a person suffering from this disorder.[citation needed]
People who experience summer SAD (spring and summer depression) show symptoms of classic depression including insomnia, anxiety, irritability, decreased appetite, weight loss, social withdrawal, an increased sex drive,[5] and suicide. Additionally, many patients are unable to cope with the increased temperatures during spring and summer.[citation needed]

Diagnostic criteria

According to the American Psychiatric Association DSM-IV criteria,[10] Seasonal Affective Disorder is not regarded as a separate disorder. It is called a "course specifier" and may be applied as an added description to the pattern of major depressive episodes in patients with major depressive disorder or patients with bipolar disorder.
The "Seasonal Pattern Specifier" must meet four criteria: depressive episodes at a particular time of the year; remissions or mania/hypomania at a characteristic time of year; these patterns must have lasted two years with no nonseasonal major depressive episodes during that same period; and these seasonal depressive episodes outnumber other depressive episodes throughout the patient's lifetime. The Mayo Clinic[5] describes three types of SAD, each with its own set of symptoms.
In the popular culture, sometimes the term "seasonal affective disorder" is applied inaccurately to the normal shift to lower energy levels in winter, leading people to believe they have a physical problem that should be addressed with various therapies or drugs.[11]en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seasonal_affective_disorder -

Candida Bohnne-Eittreim
, http://t.co/Y4C4xSB
There are thousands of women in our country that carry a deep dark burden of secret shame. It has a name-spousal rape. Many women are unaware that what they endure, often multiple times a day, is in fact a crime. Even

those that know what it is, won't report it because of the difficulties in being taken seriously, and often the threat of losing their homes, children and maybe their lives, preclude reporting it. Instead they may diffidently at first broach the subject with other women, or joke about their husbands always wanting "it" It isn't a joke. No means no. A woman has the right to say no and have that respected.

Rape is not about wanting or love or passion, it is about control. Rapists dehumanize their victims, and spouses can be more savage than the better known type of rapist. What type of man rapes his wife? What makes him tick? First and foremost these men are very egocentric. Their needs and wants are the most important thing in the world to them. When made uncomfortable by denial of any sort, they tend to overreact by shouting, punching walls or-raping. They consider marriage an automatic entitlement to sex on demand. Always on their terms of course. In fact, if a woman becomes too sexually aggressive with a man like this, it often deflates him, and he is unable to perform.

There are several different ways a man may abuse his wife's body. If she is tired or ill, he may wait until she is asleep and simply take what he feels he deserves to take. Or he may bully, harass and demean his wife into giving in, threatening her with seeking "it" elsewhere. He can use tactics such as debasing her self-esteem, telling her she is little more than an appliance to him, or worse. These men are not only extremely dysfunctional and selfish, they can be dangerous. When angered beyond reason, they may in fact, rape their wives as brutally as anyone sitting in prison for the same crime.The badly torn and bleeding wife may ask her husband why, and be told "you know damned well all women secretly want to be raped" With her pride and body in tatters, there is little else she can do but try and

hide her wounds from family and friends, and pray each night it won't happen again. But it does-after the first assault, it may be months, but it will happen again sooner or later and it WILL NOT stop, until you do something about it.

If you are a victim of spousal rape tell someone, anyone you truly trust. Talking about it is the first step to recovering your instincts for self preservation and pride. I was amazed at the number of women I personally know, who have undergone spousal rape, even if only once. So you are not alone, nor are you strange or need to feel any shame. That trophy belongs to the coward who did this to you.

Realize, and teach your children that bodily "rights to privacy" must be respected. Marriage doesn't grant anyone the right to assault your body against your will-ever. If your spouse is reasonable in other areas you can try to educate him through books, counseling or the clever use of peer pressure. A few nights of card parties, where subjects like this can be discussed generally, might cause him to see himself in full living color. If this fails, or he tries the guilt tactic of what am I supposed to do with this discomfort? Offer him the bathroom. Easing his sexual discomfort is not your primary role, nor your problem.

Marriage is supposed to be a considerate and loving partnership of equals. It is not designed to give a male an autoerotic thrill by using a wife as a receptacle for his sperm. If you get hurt repeatedly by your spouse, you must find help. Check my links to organizations that can offer you support, guidance, counseling and more. Until we stand up and say no more to this secret shame, women every day somewhere in this country will be hurt by the man they married, and even dying. Remember that you are a unique, precious and lovable individual in your own right. You have every right to demand that you and your body are to be treated with the respect they deserve. Until you do, nothing will change, and we'll continue to hide our secret shame.

I like to think that we are making great progress in the fight against the stigma of mental illness -- a fight that is necessary to ensure that people of any age with psychiatric or learning disorders feel comfortable getting the care they need. Once-taboo issues like depression, bipolar disorder, PTSD and dyslexia are now out in the open, and everyone from pop stars and movie stars, to soldiers and professional athletes, are comfortable admitting their problems and seeking help. We've come a long way.

But we still have a long way to go. Even those who are kind, caring and non-judgmental when it comes to most psychiatric disorders, from selective mutism to schizophrenia, may change their tune when talk turns to drug abuse and addiction. "Drunks," "junkies," "stoners" -- we look down on them because they "chose" to become addicted to drugs. They "chose" to ruin families and relationships. They made a "choice" that cost them their lives in an overdose.

This "choice" is a false one. Drug abuse and addiction are tragic things, but they are not character traits. Just as depression is a no-fault mental illness, so is addiction. And just as depression can tragically lead to suicide, so addiction can lead to self-inflicted death by overdose. They are both mistakes -- profound mistakes -- that the illness makes people more likely to make. But we can, should and must help suffering young people avoid them. This means tackling addiction, which takes the lives of people every year. But how?

A recent New York Timesarticle tells the sobering story of an Ohio county in the grip of a prescription drug abuse epidemic that has taken the lives of many young people. In the article, Sabrina Tavernise lays out some devastating statistics: In Scioto County, almost 1 in 10 babies test positive for drugs at birth. In Ohio as a whole, overdoses have long since outpaced car accidents as a cause of death. Prescription drug addiction across the nation is "now killing more people than crack cocaine in the 1980s and heroin in the 1970s combined."

I don't have to say that the drugs abused tend not to be medications for diabetes or high blood pressure, depression or schizophrenia. They tend to be habit-forming pain medications, like the OxyContin that has claimed dozens of lives in the town of Portsmouth, Ohio.

The suggestion is that the declining economy -- locally and nationally -- has brought on this tragedy, and urban decay and loss of industry are certainly at play. But the article fails to recognize that the root of much prescription drug misuse is untreated mental illness, which not only can lead to drug abuse but can also be exacerbated by environmental factors, like poverty. Anxiety and depression can come unbidden, but can also be triggered by adverse experiences.

It's the same way with addiction, which is just as much a problem of the mind. Self-medicating with prescription painkillers in stressful situations -- what we call a maladaptive coping mechanism -- starts many drug abusers on the road to serious problems. In the community Sabrina Tavernise writes about, the abuse is so ubiquitous it is surely a law enforcement issue. But behind the law enforcement issue and tangled with the economic issue is a mental health issue. Tavernise notes that Ohio's governor has pledged $36 million to address the drug problem through prevention and rehabilitation, which I applaud, but what constitutes prevention? Locals want more direct police intervention, shutting down clinics that (perhaps unlawfully) dispense pain medication and the like. But the problem is more deeply ingrained in the people, nuanced and immune to the number of cops on the street.

"We're raising third and fourth generations of prescription drug abusers now," the Portsmouth police chief tells Tavernise. These problems are deeply rooted in families -- just as some other psychiatric disorders can be -- and the only way to reliably prevent them is to both intervene early with kids and treat the whole family in order to mitigate the influence of a potentially corrupting disease. The goal is to make the family what it should be -- a nurturing, positive force.

Not everyone who commits suicide is mentally ill, but mental illnesses, like depression and bipolar disorder, make people feel hopeless and therefore much more likely to commit suicide. Likewise, not everyone who overdoses is addicted, but addiction greatly increases the likelihood of overdose. The bottom line is that addiction is an illness that we are able to treat and manage, if not cure, provided that we focus on the person with the addiction, the family and the community -- a holistic approach to a sprawling problem.

"I miss her so much," says the mother of an addict who was murdered by a home invader looking for pills. "If you had 100 kids, you'll never replace the one you've lost."

For this mother, I think the crime might as well have been an overdose or suicide. Her child is gone because of addiction. Let's help make sure no more children are lost to this disease.

Harold S. Koplewicz, M.D. is a leading child and adolescent psychiatrist and the president of theChild Mind Institute. For more on depression, substance abuse, and how the two can go hand in hand, go to our website, which offers parenting advice and a wealth of information on childhood psychiatric and learning disorders.

Sunday, 29 May 2011

By PAUL GRONDAHL

SCHENECTADY -- A sweeping crackdown and arrests of dozens of Four Block gang members who terrorized Hamilton Hill for years brought small comfort to three mothers in two cities who still grieve over the deaths of their children lost in the murderous undertow of gang violence.
"I feel relief that they were finally arrested and that my daughter's death wasn't forgotten," said Lisa Seymour, whose 14-year-old daughter, Cherelle Clarke, was one of four teenaged girls who committed suicide during a heartbreaking 12-month stretch between 2008 and 2009.
The suicides sparked an investigation that led to a two-year federal probe that culminated with the arrests on Thursday of 35 people, mostly in their late teens and early 20s who officials said dealt drugs, shot at rival gang members to protect their criminal turf and left a trail of violence across the city and beyond.
Authorities said Four Block gang members bullied, harassed and forced teenaged girls to perform sexual acts as a form of gang initiation. In turn, the teenaged girls tried to gain acceptance and curry favor among the young male gang-bangers by forming their own offshoot girl crew they called the Hill Bitches.
Girls who tried to resist the pressure to join the gang were bullied relentlessly on the streets and in school. Sometimes, they were jumped and beaten by members of the Hill Bitches in the girls' brand of gang initiation.
"The girls did a lot of fighting and threatened the girls who wouldn't join," said Seymour, who said her daughter was jumped and beaten so badly by the Hill Bitches that she suffered three broken ribs and a head concussion. Her daughter committed suicide about six weeks after that beating, a dark period in which she fell into a spiral of depression.
"They kept trying to get Cherelle into the gang and they taunted her terribly," Seymour said. "They kept saying all she had to do was join the gang, say she was a Four Block bitch and nobody would bother her anymore."
After her suicide, Seymour discovered a diary in her daughter's room with entries that talked about her fear of the gang, the bullying she got in school and on the streets and her suicidal thoughts. She also wrote poetry that gave voice to her struggles of trying to stay on a straight and productive path that avoided the cheap, shiny allure of gold chains, expensive sneakers and the thug life.
"The Four Block gang treated these girls like their property," said Schenectady District Attorney Robert Carney. "They considered the forced sexual acts the benefits of gang membership."
Carney said the gangs' abusive behavior over time tore at the fragile psyches of young girls, creating low self-esteem and a sense of worthlessness that contributed to depression and thoughts of suicide.
The gang's criminal enterprise -- which focused on a cluster of gritty blocks bounded by State and Strong streets and Brandywine and Veeder avenues -- led to federal charges of racketeering, conspiracy, drug trafficking and other felonies. If found guilty, those charged could face sentences ranging from a minimum of 10 years to a maximum of a life sentence.
Authorities said Four Block was responsible for more than two dozen drug sales of crack cocaine, cocaine and heroin, nine gun incidents and multiple acts of violence in that small section of Hamilton Hill in the past two years.
"I'm happy and I feel good that they took down Four Block," said Caroline Turner, whose 18-year-old daughter, Mary Turner, committed suicide in 2009. The girl was pregnant when she took her life. The teenaged boy who impregnated her was an alleged Four Block gang member, the mother said.
"We lived in fear of that gang because they terrorize you every day," said Turner, who was once jumped and beaten by a group of young men she believes were Four Block members.
"I'm glad they got arrested so that some other mother won't have to go through what I've been going through. The pain never goes away," she said.

Meanwhile, the news of the arrests was met with jubilation in Albany, where Allison Banks has waged a campaign against gun violence since her son, Eleek Williams, was shot to death in 2006 outside a bar in the city's West Hill neighborhood during a celebration of his 24th birthday.
Dushan "Lil' Du" Wilson, who was 18 at the time, was acquitted of killing Williams during a 2008 murder trial after deadlocked jurors deliberated more than seven hours. Wilson faced 25 years to life in prison if he was convicted of killing Williams.
The murdered man's mother never felt justice was done in that case and she crusaded tirelessly to try to get Wilson re-tried and convicted.
Banks felt vindicated when Dushan Wilson and 40-year-old Gregory Wilson, who is believed to be Dushan's father, were arrested in Thursday's Four Block gang sweep and were charged with conspiracy to procure, distribute and sell crack cocaine.
"I'm happy because justice was served. I'm feeling closure because my son's killer has been walking around free for five years," said Banks, who was a member of Albany's Gun Violence Task Force and co-leader of the Capital Region chapter of New Yorkers Against Gun Violence.
"I knew they'd get him eventually," she said. "He thought he was untouchable ... I stayed patient and knew his day was coming. I'm ecstatic they got him off the streets."
Back in Schenectady's Hamilton Hill, where Four Block's intimidation was widespread, a sense of pessimism mixed with cautious optimism was expressed Friday.
"When a tree falls, four or five usually grow back up," said Paul Stewart, who owns a home across from the troubled corner of Craig and Emmett streets, the site of open-air drug dealing, murders and a long history of violence.
"We need police on every corner here and 24-hour patrols," said Stewart, a native of Jamaica who's lived in Schenectady for the past eight years. "People are still scared around here, even with the Four Block arrests. I'm not scared of these guys. They threaten me all the time. Now, they're going to prison and I'm still standing in front of my house."
As part of his dark humor, Stewart painted targets on the sidewalk in front of his house. He has grown used to gunshots on his street, but he said he will not be bullied by thugs. He will not hide inside or be a virtual prisoner of his house, as many of his neighbors have become as violence escalated.
"The arrests were the best thing that ever happened on the Hill," said Fernando Ramos, who's lived in the neighborhood for seven years. "It's good the city is doing something to fight crime."
"We can only do so much as residents," said Christopher Stevens, who's lived in the neighborhood for more than 30 years with his mother, who is 90. "We're afraid. These guys are dangerous. We're glad the authorities are finally doing their jobs."
The crackdown came too late for the teenaged girls who long suffered in silence as the gangs beat them down, until they finally broke.
Seymour's dead daughter wrote these verses in a poem she called "This Is My Life:"
"Sometimes I'm mad at the world
And sometimes I'm just sad.
Nobody can see the pain.
Behind my eyes."

Judge Learned Hand called “the ghost of the innocent man convicted” an “unreal dream.” But in “Convicting the Innocent,” Brandon L. Garrett shows that it can be a “nightmarish reality.” Since the late 1980s, DNA testing has exonerated more than 250 wrongly convicted people, who spent an average of 13 years in prison for crimes they didn’t commit. (There is every reason to think that more people have been wrongly convicted since then, but only these 250 have been definitively exonerated by postconviction DNA tests.) Seventeen of the 250 were sentenced to die, and 80 to spend the rest of their lives in prison. By poring over trial transcripts and interviewing lawyers, prosecutors and court reporters, Garrett, a law professor at the University of Virginia School of Law, seeks to explore who these 250 innocent people are, and why they were wrongly convicted. His alarming conclusion: the wrongful convictions were not idiosyncratic but resulted from a series of flawed practices that the courts rely on every day, namely, false and coerced confessions, questionable eyewitness procedures, invalid forensic testimony and corrupt statements by jailhouse informers. Garrett’s book is a gripping contribution to the literature of injustice, along with a galvanizing call for reform.

Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images

Almost 90 percent of the 250 innocent people later exonerated were falsely convicted of rape, or rape and murder, and 40 of them actually confessed to crimes they didn’t commit, most adding specific details that only the real culprit could have known. How did this happen?
Garrett describes how the police, intentionally or not, fed details of the crime to the suspects — and then recorded only portions of the interrogations so that it was difficult for defense lawyers and jurors to reconstruct the truth. Even the selectively recorded interrogations make for painful reading, as the suspects offer facts that are inconsistent with what happened, and the police browbeat them into false confessions. (Detective: “You hung her!” Vasquez: “O.K., so I hung her.”) Unfortunately, the Supreme Court has refused to focus on whether confessions are reliable, asking instead whether they were coerced, or offered without Miranda warnings. Garrett says the best protection against false confessions would be to require that police record interrogations from beginning to end; at the moment, 11 states and the District of Columbia are required or encouraged to record at least some interrogations.
In addition to false confessions, eyewitnesses wrongly identified the accused in 76 percent of the 250 cases. The unreliability of witness identifications is now widely known, but Garrett was surprised to discover how flagrantly unreliable the procedures were in the cases he examined. In 78 percent of the trials, he found evidence that the police contaminated the eyewitness identifications with suggestive methods, like indicating which suspect in a lineup should be selected, or conducting lineups where one suspect obviously stood out from the others. (Many of the convicted looked nothing like the initial description given by the victims.) Garrett learned that while the witnesses were confident by the time of the trial that they had identified the right suspect, in more than half the cases they had not been confident at the time of the initial identification.
Of those exonerated by DNA, 70 percent were from minorities, and in nearly half of the rape cases involving blacks or Hispanics, the victims were white. (Garrett points out that “most sexual offenses, almost 90 percent, are committed by offenders of the same race as the victim.”) Garrett criticizes the Supreme Court for allowing lineups that were unfairly conducted, and says the best way to avoid erroneous identifications is to use a ­double-blind procedure where police officers can’t influence the witness because they don’t know which person in the lineup is the suspect.
Garrett found invalid forensic testimony in 61 percent of the trials where an analyst testified for the prosecution, including overly confident claims of matching bite marks, shoe prints and hair samples. (One leading geneticist noted in 1989 that clinical and forensic labs have to meet higher standards to diagnose strep throat than to put a defendant on death row.) And Garrett discovered unreliable testimony by jailhouse informers in 21 percent of the trials — informers who, in exchange for lenient treatment from prosecutors, lied about hearing specific details of the crime from their cell mates. Garrett suggests this testimony could be avoided if prosecutors were prohibited from promising informers secret deals that weren’t disclosed to the defense.
Garrett’s statistical analysis is invaluable, but the most dramatic parts of his book are those that provide narrative details of trials that failed to prevent the innocent from being wrongly convicted. It turns out to be surprisingly hard to prove your innocence: most people don’t remember where they were on a particular day months ago, and can present only weak alibis. Especially memorable are the dignity and self-control with which those convicted asserted their innocence and recanted their false confessions.
Even when facing the death penalty at their sentencing hearings, these innocent people often maintained a remarkable degree of poise. After the verdicts were read, some of them understandably lashed out in anger and then sought to compose themselves. In the Central Park jogger case, one of the convicted was taken out of the courtroom after he exclaimed: “No. No. No. Can’t take this. O, Lord. Jesus. No. . . . It’s wrong. It’s wrong. No. No.”
Where were the courts in all of these 250 miscarriages of justice? In 10 percent of the cases, appellate courts called the evidence of the innocent people’s guilt “overwhelming,” while the Supreme Court summarily dismissed requests to review 37 of the cases without giving reasons. I teach criminal procedure, and after reading Garrett’s book, I am looking forward to future discussions with students of the many Supreme Court cases that narrowly concentrate on procedural regularity, rather than encourage appellate courts to review the accuracy of evidence. Garrett makes a powerful argument for enhanced access to DNA testing: in addition to clearing the innocent, DNA tests in 45 percent of the cases he studied identified the actual rapists or murderers, many of whom had been free for more than a decade to commit other crimes. And he insists that by placing too much reliance on decisions made early in the investigative process, we place the innocent at an unnecessarily high risk of being convicted of crimes they didn’t commit.
Garrett ends by reviewing the most promising bipartisan reforms that seek to increase the accuracy and reliability of criminal convictions, like North Carolina’s Actual Innocence Commission, which has required the recording of homicide interrogations, expanded the procedures for preserving evidence and increased defendants’ access to DNA testing. But it’s the stories in his book that stick in the memory. One can only hope that they will mobilize a broad range of citizens, liberal and conservative, to demand legislative and judicial reforms ensuring that the innocent go free whether or not the constable has blundered. “What makes the trials of exonerees so frightening is that they show how the case against an innocent person may not seem weak,” Garrett writes. “The case may seem uncannily strong.”

Jeffrey Rosen is a law professor at George Washington University and the legal affairs editor of The New Republic.

By Zaid Jilani

The conservative governors who were elected across the country last November have championedhugecuts to public education spending while resisting efforts to raise revenues from the wealthiest among us. In Michigan, Gov. Rick Snyder (R) proposed cutting millions of dollars from the public education budget, and this week the GOP-controlled state senate passed a “contentious K-12 budget that cuts $470 per student from school districts.”

Outraged by these cuts, Nathan Bootz, the superintendent of Ithaca Public Schools, wrote a letter to the editor in a local paper proposing an idea that could come out of aJonathan Swift novel: if Snyder intends on draining funding from public schools, maybe Bootz should convert the schools in his district into prisons to get funding.

Noting that Michigan spends “between $30,000 and $40,000″ on each prisoner but can barely provide $7,000 per public school student, Bootz says that maybe we need to start treating “our students like they are prisoners, with equal funding“:

In these tough economic times, schools are hurting. And yes, everyone in Michigan is hurting right now financially, but why aren’t we protecting schools? Schools are the one place on Earth that people look to to “fix” what is wrong with society by educating our youth and preparing them to take on the issues that society has created. [...]This is why I’m proposing to make my school a prison. The State of Michigan spends annually somewhere between $30,000 and $40,000 per prisoner, yet we are struggling to provide schools with $7,000 per student. I guess we need to treat our students like they are prisoners, with equal funding. Please give my students three meals a day. Please give my children access to free health care. Please provide my school district Internet access and computers. Please put books in my library. Please give my students a weight room so we can be big and strong. We provide all of these things to prisoners because they have constitutional rights. What about the rights of youth, our future?!

At the end of his letter, Bootz strikes a more serious note, writing that we need to give “our schools the resources necessary to keep our students OUT of prison.” According to statistics from city-data.com, his city, Ithaca, Michigan, has a higher poverty rate than the state average, and much of that poverty is concentrated in children under five years of age and teenagers.http://urbanyouthjustice.visibli.com/share/l73TD4

www.TheTruthAboutKelsey.com.Raye Dawn Smith is a loving mother who lost her child, Kelsey Smith-Briggs. She's in prison for 27 years on the same charge as the man who took the life of her daughter because of a hate campaign that's still being perpetrated against her to this day.

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DARCY D= YOU MUST BELIEVE.STANDING UP FOR THE INNOCENT C.E.O
The United Kingdom resident champions causes of the voiceless, the powerless and the weak, particularly in North America. She campaigns for petitions on behalf of incarcerated human trafficking.